Early-Season Winners and Losers for Borussia Dortmund

The October international break marks the end of the start of the season for Borussia Dortmund. It comes after roughly a quarter of the season, with 10 games already in the books.

Fans will hope those 10 matches turn out to be one-fifth of the campaign, as it would mean the club makes deep runs in the UEFA Champions League and the DFB-Pokal.

Generally, fans ought to be happy with the start of the 2016/17 campaign. Considering the wholesale changes the club underwent in a busy summer transfer period, everyone knew it could take head coach Thomas Tuchel some time to figure things out as his team becomes a cohesive unit.

Sitting third in the Bundesliga with 12 points from six matches, having won four points against Legia Warsaw and Real Madrid in the Champions League and having advanced to the next round of the DFB-Pokal with ease, the Black and Yellows have so far met expectations.

It's debatable whether the international break comes at an opportune time for them. On one hand, Tuchel correctly pointed out that one "could see our physical and mental fatigue" in his press conference after a disappointing 2-0 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen. A few days with a lighter workload and in new surroundings will do most of the players good.

On the other hand, though, Dortmund won't have the chance to make up for the loss right away, the sour taste in their mouths will linger for a while. And, more importantly, the 43-year-old will not get to work with most of his players during the break.

That also means only a few players will have the chance to set straight the impression they've given over the first weeks of the season. 

Here, Bleacher Report dishes out some winners and losers from the start of the campaign. Please note that injured players won't be included, so don't expect Marco Reus on the list.

Winner: Raphael Guerreiro

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There can be little question as to who of the club's whopping eight new signings in the summer has made the biggest early impact.

Record transfer Andre Schurrle has missed five of the 10 matches with a knee injury, while Mario Gotze is being brought along slowly after his return from a disappointing three-year spell at Bayern Munich. Sebastian Rode, who also joined from the Allianz Arena, has been in and out of the lineup.

Youngsters Ousmane Dembele and Emre Mor are up and down in their performances, as to be expected seeing as they're only 19 years of age and it's a huge step up in competition for them.

Marc Bartra has indicated his potential after making the move from FC Barcelona, but he missed the last three matches after picking up an abductor injury 12 minutes into a 3-1 win over SC Freiburg, while countryman Mikel Merino has yet to see the field.

That leaves Raphael Guerreiro, a bargain of a signing from FC Lorient in Ligue 1 for €12 million.

Initially thought of as competition for captain Marcel Schmelzer at left-back following strong performances at Euro 2016, where the Portugal international earned a spot in the official UEFA team of the tournament, the 22-year-old has quickly developed into a key figure in Tuchel's midfield.

Whether it's in central midfield or on the left wing, Guerreiro has taken Dortmund by storm, with his head coach singing his praises. "He's too good to play in just one position," the 43-year-old said in a press conference ahead of the team's 5-1 win at VfL Wolfsburg.

In that match, Guerreiro started in central midfield, scored the first goal and assisted two more, earning a nine-out-of-10 rating from ESPN FC's Stefan Buczko, who noted that "almost every attack was personally signed off by the Portuguese international."

The 22-year-old's development into an all-action midfielder has cushioned the blow of Ilkay Gundogan's departure to Manchester City to some degree. It's no stretch to already call Guerreiro one of the most important players on the team.

Loser: Nuri Sahin

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If Guerreiro is the biggest positive surprise at this early stage of the campaign, Nuri Sahin may well be the biggest disappointment.

The 28-year-old has made the 18-man matchday squad just once, for the Leverkusen match, and still waits for his first appearance of the season. The defensive midfielder had looked in good form through the earlier stages of pre-season, but he suddenly seemed to lose that form as the start of the competitive matches drew closer.

Julian Weigl was always going to start over Sahin, but Rode's signing has pushed the Turkey international even further down the depth chart, even though Rode looks best when played as a box-to-box midfielder without too many responsibilities in the buildup.

This writer argued in August that Sahin has value both on and off the field, as a deep-lying playmaker and a leader, but Tuchel has so far passed on one of his most experienced players. 

At this stage, it wouldn't be surprising if the 28-year-old was sold in the January transfer window, per a report from Sport Bild (link in German). It would be a disappointing, undignified end to the Ludenscheid-born's second stint with the club after a celebrated return from Real Madrid by way of Liverpool in 2013.

Tuchel said about his midfielder in February, per Buczko: "From all I've seen, Sahin will play an extremely important role for us. I cannot stress enough how prominent his role will be." 

If the start to the campaign is any indication, those were rather empty words.

Winner: Gonzalo Castro

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After an up-and-down first season at the club, Gonzalo Castro seems to have taken a big step forward at the start of the current campaign. The 29-year-old has played more minutes than Gotze, Guerreiro, Rode or Shinji Kagawa, having for now won a starting spot in central midfield.

Only Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored more than his three goals, while the former Leverkusen man leads the team with six assists

Castro has been on such a good run of form lately that Tuchel told a press conference he "assumed 100 per cent that he would be included [in the Germany squad] because his performances over a long period have been outstandingly good." 

It can't come as a huge surprise that Castro, who last played for Germany in 2007, wasn't called up with a number of talented younger players preferred by Joachim Low, however.

Still, Tuchel rightly praised his midfielder's professionalism and said "it's a dream to have such a reliable player who is always available."

Consistency has been Castro's biggest issue at Dortmund and even this season, he's looked underwhelming in two or three games. On the whole, though, fans are now seeing the kind of impact they hoped for when the midfielder signed in 2015.

Loser: Mikel Merino

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Alongside Sahin and full-back Joo Ho Park, Mikel Merino is one of three healthy players who have yet to spend a single minute on the pitch in a competitive match.

It must be difficult for the 20-year-old Spaniard, who was a guaranteed starter for CA Osasuna for two seasons despite his young age and a central figure as the side from Pamplona won promotion from Segunda Division last season. Merino chipped in with six goals in the final eight matches (including play-offs) from his position in central midfield.

At Dortmund, he's been used almost exclusively at centre-back by Tuchel in pre-season, a transition he clearly struggled with, showing a lack of defensive instincts and timing in his challenges. It seems as though he was only an emergency option in central defence, as senior options Matthias Ginter and Sven Bender were away on international duty at the Rio Olympics.

Tuchel justified Merino's lack of playing time in the early stages with his status as a "specialist for defensive midfield," per Buczko, with more versatile players preferred on the bench.

However, seeing as the Spaniard wasn't included in the Champions League squad, with the injured Reus and Erik Durm preferred despite the distinct possibility of the latter not being fit until the new year, it seems as though Merino is quite far from making an impact in his first year at the Westfalenstadion.

The 20-year-old told Goal's Alberto Pinero (link in German) that he's thinking about a loan move in the winter, which arguably would be the best for both sides involved.

Winner: Felix Passlack

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Felix Passlack can be considered a winner despite playing only 90 minutes of first-team football since the end of August.

He deserves more playing time after a wonderful performance in the DFL-Supercup loss to Bayern, where he annoyed Franck Ribery so much that he lashed out against the 18-year-old and should have been sent off. 

Matthias Dersch of Ruhr Nachrichten (link in German), meanwhile, ranked him as the top outfield player for the Black and Yellows on the day, arguing it was Passlack's best showing at the professional level to this point.

Passlack's dynamism and youthful exuberance are a stark contrast to incumbent right-back Lukasz Piszczek's almost conservative showings this season. The 31-year-old Poland international may have scored two goals in seven matches, but that can't cover up the fact that his age and long-term effects of a number of injuries are showing.

It's important that Passlack has a set position this season, after spending games on both wings and in both full-back spots in his first few matches for Tuchel's side after moving up from the under-19 level in January.

Even with his lack of playing time in more recent matches, Passlack has shown this season that he can be the heir apparent to Piszczek.

Loser: Shinji Kagawa

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Shinji Kagawa's is a curious case. On paper, few players should have benefited more from Tuchel's implementation of a possession-based playing style that requires precision, intelligence and quickness from players in the attacking zones.

A wonderful technician with underrated counter-pressing skills, the Japan international should be a perfect fit for the 43-year-old coach. 

However, Kagawa's first season under Tuchel was a little underwhelming. His final stats looked good, with 13 goals and 13 assists in 46 matches across competitions, but the diminutive playmaker was rarely consistent and went through a veritable rough patch around the winter break.

Many expected the addition of Gotze to eat into Kagawa's minutes this season, but few will have predicted that he would fall behind Castro, Guerreiro and even the more defensive-minded Rode on the depth chart. With Dortmund playing a 4-1-4-1 formation, those four are his main competitors for playing time, and the 27-year-old has been the odd man out more often than not so far.

He started the first three matches of the campaign and scored a brace in the DFB-Pokal against Eintracht Trier, but he has since only spent 45 minutes on the pitch in two substitute appearances. His omission from the matchday squad for the clash with Real Madrid in the Champions League was a distinct low point of Kagawa's second stint at the club.

Much like Sahin and Merino, the Japanese is a victim of the club's impressive squad depth and has to get out of his rut if he wants to stay at the Westfalenstadion.

Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.